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my contract is almost up for cingular, dont know if i should renew or should i got with nextel???

ahh... the topic of cell phones...

well... maybe... or then again maybe not... it really depends on your individual situation. Nextel is great if you've got more than one person on your plan or know other ppl with Nextels thus you can use the 2-way feature to communicate with them. in terms of just a cell phone provider, Nextel is probably the priciest of all the carriers for minute/price ratio. they are getting a little better now with some of the new plans they have out. i've had them for just under the past year and have found their cell service to be overall pretty good. i can talk in the elevators of most office buildings in downtown (Chicago) and have had overall pretty good coverage nationwide when traveling.

one caveat though - Nextel is on their own private network and use a proprietary technology (motorola's iDEN). this means that you cannot use your Nextel phone on another provider's cell tower; what that means is if Nextel doesn't have service where you're at, you're not going to get service period because you can't roam onto another provider's network. unlike AT&T and Cingular which both have agreements with one another to allow usage of the other's networks. the plus side to that is the fact that Nextel has the most cell towers out there. other providers make claim to having "the largest network..." well this is a half truth in that it's not entirely their own network, it's their network plus the areas covered by the towers of other providers that they have usage agreements with.

now let's cover Nextel's phones... unlike other providers, Nextel doesn't sell phones for cheap. in fact they can get pretty pricey. unless you're going for the i30 or the i35 , expect to shell out $100 - $200+ for a phone. you also don't get quite the selection you would with say T-Mobile where there's about a bazillion different phones to chose from with enough ringtones to make you sick.

so let's summarize:

Nextel good if...
1) you have more than one phone on the plan or have friends/co-workers w/ Nextel and use the 2-way feature.
2) you like having reliable provider service
3) are usually in a metro area with good coverage or travel along a major highway
4) you think Cingular sucks (because they do)
5) you're looking for a provider than hasn't oversold themselves in most of their markets

Nextel bad if...
1) you're on a tight cell phone budget
2) don't want to spend more than $50 on a phone
3) you live or travel into the boonies a lot
4) you think Cingular is great (but in actuality, they suck)
5) you use your phone internationally (you have to buy a v60 or p280 and swap your sim card into it to use outside of the US on any GSM network + out of network charges apply
click here for the phones)


okay... that's all i can think of off the top of my head. any other questions?

hmm cool explanation, thing is i only have 3 friends how have nextel, not sure if its worth going nextel, i have cingular, i started with them back when they were pac bell, i currently pay 35.99 and get unlimited nights and weekends, and 600 minutes anytime, my nights and weekeends start at 7 pm not 9pm. I have kept the same plan and same number sincei started off with pac bell. I feel im getting good deal for that amount, know if switch to nextel i have to pay about 60 bux to get unlimited direct connect minutes and very few anytime minutes.

i dunno if u guys have tmobile out there but thats who i'm with and i've used them and cingular. tmobile is by far a better service.

i heard that Tmobile rents lines from cingular.

GO NEXTEL OR TMOBILE!

T-mobile does have contracts with AT&T and Cingular to use some of their towers and vice versa. problem with T-mobile is that they've oversold themselves in practically every single major market and most customers have complained about the poor service. to their credit, they have made improvements over the past 8 months or so to really get their act together.

as for $$$, yes you will get the least bang for your buck w/ Nextel. how's Sprint in your area?

my brother use to have sprint, worst service ever, he couldnt get any reception at work, nor in two cities nearby, one being santa monica, and another one out in valley. I think i will wait another year to switch to nextel. I like nextel cause of the rounding off seconds and because of there two way radio.

7-/\/\0811_3 4 t3h w1|\|


... i vote for tmobile... been w/ them for over 2 yrs and have no complaints... great prices and lots of great phones to choose from

i like sprint in my area !
had nextel and to many dead areas in the detroit metro !
ask friends were you live it verys from area to area around the country as to who has the better coverage !
what company is good in one area may be bad in another city!

like you i've been with cingular since they were pacbell. after almost 5 years i don't see any reason to change to another provider.

i txt message alot and one good thing is when i first got the service i had unlimited txt messaging. sometime back they started charging for the txt messaging service but luckily i was never affected.

so basically for $39.99/month i get 600 anytime (rollover), unlimited night and weekends and free unlimited txt messaging (worldwide).

only thing i dont like about cingular is their limited selection of phones. luckily i can always get the latest phones from various dealers as long as they are "unlocked".

i'd say stay with cingular if you really haven't had any problems.

sprint's a real hit or miss; in most markets they're a miss.... i had them when they first opened up in the Chicago market and they were great, after about 2 yrs they went downhilll really, really fast.

cingular here in Chicago sucks donkey balls and i wouldn't reccommend them, Verizon or US Cellular to anyone... one thing to note about Nextel plans, few of them round to the second anymore. most of them round up to the nearest minute now. the gf and i are on the National Shared 500 plan each and that still bills to the second (after the first minute) and i'd say it comes in real handy.

Originally posted by TheManiacal1
the plus side to that is the fact that Nextel has the most cell towers out there.

actually.....thats not entirely true. Nextel has a lot of cell towers, but not the most.
I forgot who actually has the most cell towers, and the break down of the coverage. Cellular One once had the most towers, adn the best service, but they kinda slipped away.

I will have to ask my dad that question, see what he says. he works on those towers all day long. Knows all about that shit

Just to let you know, T-Mobile uses GSM technology for their phones. Cingular, in most places, does not use GSM technology but rather TDMA technology. They are going for a complete switchover if I am correct. Sprint uses CDMA and so does Verizon. AT&T just recently went GSM and are starting to migrate towards 3G. You will see a lot of 3G phones and carriers switching over to 3G soon.

T-Mobile has a nationwide network due to buyouts. A well-built GSM network in the Southeast was built by Powetel and DigiphPCS. Both companies are now T-Mobile. T-Mobile has accquired a lot of regional carriers to expand their network.

You will see that most companies will begin the migration towards 3G which should be an awesome technology. Nothing wrong with staying with Cingular unless you are unhappy.




(BTW my dad has been in the cell phone business since the 80s so I've always known about the technology and stuff, both carrier and phone manufacturer side)

good info from Busby. just about every carrier is on their way to either 2.5G or 3G compliancy within the next year or so. just about every carrier except Nextel actually... their proprietary iDEN technology (shared w/ Boost and Telus in Canada) that is not GSM compatible (at least the phones aren't... the sim cards can be used on GSM phones outside of the US).

speaking of which, for more info you may want to check out HowardChui.com and their respective forums